A collection of personal items from a collapsed building in Adana.

I thought the shaking would stop. Turkey has a lot of earthquakes, and I had felt a few small to medium ones since moving here in 2014. Each time the shaking was slight and passed quickly. Over the past eight years I would even awake in the night sometimes with a shaking sensation just to realize everything was normal.

But the earthquake that hit southeast Turkey and northern Syria at 4:17am was no dream. I don’t know what woke me first: the intense shaking of the building or the sound of objects crashing to the floor. I had read once that if you are in an earthquake while in bed you should cover your head with a pillow. So I did.

But the shaking did not stop. It felt like the moving floor in a fun house at the county fair from my childhood. I finally jumped out of bed with the thought that this is a major earthquake and I need to get out of this building.

My roommate and house guest (who had only come to Adana the previous evening to take a test the next day) were already in the hallway by the time I emerged from my room. I remember warning everyone to be careful of the broken glass from the cabinet that had fallen in front of the door. We quickly put on coats and shoes and ran out of the building along with all of our neighbors. I soon realized that the whole city of Adana had fled into the pouring rain and open streets in the darkness of the early morning hours.

It took awhile to understand the magnitude of the earthquake. At first I thought it had only hit Adana. But as dawn broke upon the morning darkness I realized that the entire southeast of Turkey had been rocked by the powerful quake.

The ringing of the alarm on my phone that I had set the previous evening for a seven o’clock wakeup was a sobering moment that this day would not go as I had planned. And as two weeks have passed since the earth moved beneath some 13 million people, I am realizing that my life will never be the same. I thought life would always be measured by before the pandemic and after the pandemic. Now a new measurement has emerged.

I think the extent of the damage of this earthquake will never be measured. We can count the number of buildings damaged, but the impact on the souls of men and women is immeasurable. Many people have lost many people. Many people are wounded physically and emotionally. These wounds will turn to scars one day but the reminder of February 6 will live with the people of southeast Turkey and northern Syria forever.

I pray healing will come to those who are hurting and those who have lost so much. Geçmiş olsun Türkiyem.